"Good morning, Princess Margaret."
At nine o'clock on Friday morning, at the entrance of the auditorium of the Third National Mechanical Institute of Delarion in the Tobesk University District, Shad greeted the princess wearing a rabbit fur windproof cloak.
Today Princess Margaret will visit the college and attend several lectures.
Xia De was not invited originally, but Director Anros gave him a pass here on Monday. After a few days of "learning foreign languages", the princess and Xia De became more familiar with each other. She probably misunderstood the reason why Xia De came here, thinking that he was here to protect her, so after seeing Xia De from a distance, she called him over and said a few words, and then arranged for him to accompany the tour team.
The Steam Age Academy is also a very new place for outsiders. The towering castle-like buildings and the garden-like environment of the academy make the inside and outside of the academy seem like they are from a completely different era.
The ancient college system continued the style of the old times, except that this time, commoners who passed the examination were allowed to enroll.
Princess Margaret was dressed up today. As he had learned in advance that her itinerary had nothing to do with history, folklore and other majors, Xia De was very relieved about her safety. The princess was mainly here to visit the college's basic physics, mathematics, mechanics and architecture majors, and the reports she listened to were also related to these.
In addition to the members of the visiting delegation, the entourage also included officials from the city hall, reporters, and accompanying staff from the college itself.
Everything seemed normal. Shade, wearing the winter warm suit that Miss Carina had the maids bring, followed the group at the end and visited the school building of the Third National Mechanical College of Delarion. He found that the accommodation conditions of students in this era were surprisingly good. Although there was no summer cooling device, the size of the dormitory and the available space were much better than the schools in the hometown of the foreigners;
When I visited the laboratory of the School of Physics, a bald professor who looked quite good demonstrated a simple pinhole imaging experiment and a rather complicated gas lamp projection device in a dark room using a large steam engine to drive pulleys and levers. The filters used to maintain the stability of the light source output were the most expensive part, and the smell of the mixture of motor oil and lubricating oil in the dark room was the most unbearable smell;
In the laboratory of the School of Mechanical Engineering, local professors demonstrated a "vacuum cleaner" that had just been patented. The brass vacuum cleaner body was unusually large, but the effect was very good. After using filter cloth and steam boosting, the principle of which was not understood by outsiders, the vacuum cleaner could effectively suck away most of the stains. Princess Margaret was even invited to try it out herself and posed for a few photos to be published tomorrow. Although this new machine cannot be widely promoted due to its size, it will solve this problem and will be a very economical invention.
However, there were some unpleasant things during the visit. When visiting the new milling machine in the college's factory, the huge noise generated by the operation of the machinery caused Viscount Browning, a 51-year-old man who was accompanying Princess Margaret, to faint.
This little episode did not cause much commotion, but it was recorded by reporters, which made the gentlemen in the city hall quite unhappy.
“Technological development always comes at a price.”
Xia De, who was at the back of the crowd, was watching the Viscount of the Southern Kingdom being carried away on a stretcher when he heard a familiar voice. He turned around and saw a lady in a red top and black bottom dress, holding a silver notebook in her hand.
Xia De was stunned for a moment before he said softly:
"It's been a while since the card game at Lakeview Manor, Miss Witt."
In fact, it was Miss Pavo, the vice president of the Truth Society. Xia De didn't expect that she would dare to appear in such a place.
"Long time no see, Mr. Hamilton."
The sorceress smiled and greeted, then, like Shade, she looked at the old man being carried away:
"Don't worry. This is probably a heart attack caused by the noise. I saw the servants had already fed him medicine mixed with rum. He won't be in danger of death."
If he didn't know her true identity, Xia De would have thought that she was a learned noble lady.
Although the Viscount's coma had nothing to do with the factory, the visiting team still left here temporarily and prepared to visit the next destination, which was the model of the new locomotive being manufactured in the college.
Shade didn't think about reporting this dangerous sorceress now. Since she dared to show up, she was confident enough to leave, but Shade didn't want to walk with her. However, Miss Pav seemed to have made up her mind to follow Shade, so she walked with him at the end of the crowd, following the gentlemen and ladies in front, and continued to walk south.
"Science is so fascinating, and the miniaturized steam engine is probably the most important invention in the last thousand years."
Miss Pavaud exclaimed, and Shad agreed with this, but just nodded, hoping that the lady could see his indifference.
But the sorceress didn't really care about Shade's attitude, she was just chatting with someone casually:
"The Witte family has invested in some new inventions. In this era, if you want to change your social class, reasonable investment is essential."
"So what did the Witte family invest in?"
Xia De asked casually, pretending to be curious. It would be strange if he really didn't say anything.
"For example, the new locomotive we're going to see next, a unique steelmaking method, a very interesting two-wheeled locomotive that moves by human power, and a four-wheeled locomotive driven by a small steam engine. I'm very optimistic about the fourth one, but it's just a theoretical drawing at the moment."
Miss Pavo said regretfully, and Shad tried his best to control his expression and the urge to express his opinion on the above invention.
"Mr. Hamilton, I know your main job is detective. Have you ever considered investing your savings in new inventions?"
She asked Xia De again. At this moment, the group was crossing the Tower Bridge between the towering buildings. This was the landmark building of the school and had a history of at least 300 years.
“Investing in inventions?”
In the spirit of saying less and making fewer mistakes, Shade made up a story. Somehow he thought of what he had seen in the year 5177 of the Fifth Era, so he said:
"I have considered investing in the chemical industry. The clothes we wear today are all biological products of biological fibers, such as silk, cotton, linen, animal fur, and so on. Although the improvement of textile machines has enabled the textile industry to develop greatly based on biological products, I am thinking that maybe I can try to synthesize artificial fibers through the chemical industry."
"Chemically synthesized artificial fibers?"
Miss Pavo raised her eyebrows, and turned left with Shade, and set foot on the stone road to the back of the academy. The two Carsenrick gentlemen in front were commenting on the scenery of the academy, and the Carsenrick language with a local accent was criticizing the loss of the glory of the nobility here.
"I had never heard of the possibility of synthetic textile fibers, or even thought of it."
Miss Pavlo showed some interest. She smiled and said:
"Knight, you have a great idea. Although it sounds incredible, once you succeed, you can use artificial fibers to challenge the monopoly of biological fibers. If you can reduce the cost of chemical synthetic fibers to..."
"No, no, no."
Shade immediately shook his head. He brought up this topic not to make Miss Pavo admire his wisdom, but to make her think that he was a hopeless person. The last adventure of the Time Key in the year 5177 of the Fifth Epoch gave him inspiration:
"I didn't think about it that much. It's like this. Clothes nowadays have too little elasticity."
He tugged at his black coat and pulled at his scarf:
"For example, stockings were originally worn by men. At that time, stockings were knitted by hand, which required special materials and high labor costs. Later, ladies discovered the charm of stockings, and we invented efficient knitting machines decades ago, allowing most beautiful girls in the city to wear a pair of beautiful stockings."
Shad nodded, and Miss Pavo looked at him suspiciously with her lips pursed.
"But it's still not enough. Even though efficient knitting machines have reduced the cost of stockings, the elasticity and transparency of the stockings themselves are still not enough."
"Um... transparency?"
Miss Pavo was not a foreigner, and had never really seen the extravagance of the Witch Emperor of the Fifth Epoch, so she could not understand what Shade said for the time being. Her ladies' boots stepped on the cobblestones under her feet, and she subconsciously recalled what she was wearing under her thick long skirt.
"Yes, in addition to transparency, there is also elasticity. Because of the lack of elasticity, girls' stockings still need garters to fix them to prevent them from sliding down while walking. But if the elasticity is sufficient, not only will there be no need for additional garters, but even for the surface of the stockings, just a light pull... ... cough."
Shade paused and added:
"Of course, I admit that garters are very good, but I think, since we can't find a thin and elastic material in terms of biological materials, then can we use chemical means to artificially synthesize a synthetic fiber material that meets the requirements to show the beauty of girls' legs..."
At this point, he seemed to have just noticed what he was saying, and smiled and shook his head:
"I'm sorry, but these words are a bit rude. Miss Witte, just pretend I didn't say anything."
Shade wanted to end the topic, but the sorceress didn't continue the conversation. Although the values of a ring sorceress are somewhat different from those of ordinary people, no one would talk about women's legs with a strange man in such a public place.
“Chemistry is truly amazing.”
Miss Pavone said, seeming to lose some of her enthusiasm for talking to Shade:
"Synthesizing substances that have never existed before, which people could not imagine before."
"Maybe it's not that there has never been one, but it's just that we haven't discovered it yet."
Shade said in a relaxed tone, and Miss Pavour nodded:
“I once thought, if chemistry can synthesize everything from basic materials, then can it synthesize the components of the human body?”
She was very good at taking the subject in dangerous directions.
"This belongs to the legendary alchemy."
Shade smiled and said:
"This is not a problem in the field of chemistry. Alchemists who studied ancient alchemy also claimed that they could turn coal into gold."
"Yes, the legendary Philosopher's Stone."
Miss Pavo also laughed. The "Philosopher's Stone" has a great reputation even among ordinary people. True and false occult books always like to add words like "Philosopher's Stone".
After all, turning stone into gold and achieving immortality represent the most fundamental desires of human beings.